The development of media content in digital form has created new ways for consumers to access and experience video and audio content. With more than one billion people on-line, and broadband Internet access becoming more widely available in United States and international markets, enjoying digital media content is becoming much faster and easier. Consumers can now stream media content, or download and play content on a large number of electronic devices with a level of quality that increasingly matches traditional high-quality home theatre and audio systems.
A variety of different business models may be used for delivering media content, and consumers can typically choose from among large catalogs and get the content delivered quickly and conveniently from the on-line source whenever they want it. Consumers like the quality, choice, and flexibility that digital delivery provides, and continued growth and demand is anticipated. Some analysts point to such growth as partly contributing to the decline of sales of music that is physically delivered on CD (Compact Disc). And while DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs) currently continue to be a preferred way for consumers to access and consume video such as feature films and movies, on-line video delivery is expected to experience very significant growth in the future, particularly as bandwidth availability improves and effective Internet acceleration and traffic management techniques continue to be developed and deployed.
While digital media content delivery is very popular and proving to be commercially successful, some consumers continue to prefer physically embodied media content and its traditional packaging. For these consumers, digital media content does not provide the kind of close and personal interaction that results when one has a physical object to look at, touch, and hold and which can further reinforce a sense of ownership.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.